[cctalk] Re: Silly question about S-100 and video monitors

Composite will 99.999999% of the time be better than RF modulated due to the bandwidth of NTSC (American) Televisions.  The NTSC television standard was not what I would exactly call high tech or high resolution.  It was 525 scan lines interlaced at 30Hz meaning that there was only 262.5 lines every 60th of a second.  If you were very very lucky and had a very good television you might get 640 x 480 with alot of flicker.  If you want color the resolution went way down due to the way that the NTSC standard handled colors to be backwards compatible with black and white televisions. The roots of this standard go all the way back to the 1930's and became a standard in 1940.  By passing the tuner meant bypassing all of the filters and demodulation that needed to happen.  Many video games of the 70's and early 80's came with 300 Ohm antenna leads and an RCA plug with a switch for  modulated or unmodulated signals. I remember buying small composite monitors with a single RCA jack on the back for < $100 as far back as like 1982. Usually if the monitor had speakers it was based on a TV without the tuner, if it didn't have speakers it was a purpose build monitor. As the cost of video production came down in the 70's and 80's the cost of composite monitors dropped considerably and also started appearing on the used market.  I remember buying a black and white square box video monitor for like $50 as the Dayton hamfest in the early 80's. On 8/31/2023 5:11 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: